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 The Atlas 5, built and flown by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a
partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, lifted off from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:44 p.m. EST (2144 GMT) after three
days of delays to wait out poor weather and high winds.
Sunday's launch reopens one of two U.S. supply lines to the station,
a $100 billion research laboratory circling 250 miles (400 km) above
Earth. Both cargo lines had been shut down by failed rocket
launches.
Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital, an aerospace and defense company
with annual revenues of about $4.4 billion, hopes to return its own
Antares rocket to flight in May, following an October 2014 launch
accident. Meanwhile, Orbital bought two Atlas rocket rides from ULA
to resume work under its $1.9 billion NASA contract.
 NASA’s second supply line, operated by privately owned Space
Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is aiming to return its Falcon
9 rocket to flight this month following a botched station cargo run
in June.
Both companies hope to win follow-on station resupply contracts from
the U.S. space agency in January. They face competition from
privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp, which is offering a robotic
version of a small shuttle-like space plane called Dream Chaser.
Boeing was eliminated from the competition last month.
With the arrival of its Cygnus capsule at the station, Orbital hopes
to make up for lost time. The upgraded capsule, which is due to
arrive on Wednesday, is loaded with more than 7,700 pounds (3,500
kg) of food, clothing, computer gear, spacewalk equipment, science
experiments and other supplies.
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That is almost as much cargo as Orbital delivered during a test
flight and its two successful cargo missions.
Cygnus will be the first U.S. ship to reach the station since April,
though Russia and Japan also fly freighters. Europe flew its fifth
and final ATV cargo capsule in August.
The two U.S. launch accidents, plus a failed Russian cargo run in
April, have left the station’s storage bins a bit empty. NASA aims
to keep a six-month supply of food aboard and is currently down to a
four-month cushion. Toilet supplies run out in February, said
station program manager Kirk Shireman.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Tom Brown and Jonathan Oatis)
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